New Smaug!

Who’s that reading the new Prairie Dog? It’s cartoonist Dakota McFadzean (left) and his auxiliary cartoonist brother, Jonah! Dakota’s home for the holidays, as you know if you read last issue. Hopefully you caught his book signing at the RPL last week — I didn’t because 1.) I suck and 2.) I had (and still have) the goddamn monkey plague. Anyhoo, Dakota brought his pen, ink and paper with him, as you can tell by the cover he drew for us. Smaug, of course, is the dragon from The Hobbit, and the version Dakota drew shows him eating… oh dear, are those Santa’s reindeer? And where’s Santa… uh oh. Who approved this horrible cover?

So what’s in this issue? Well!

THE HOBBIT I hear that some alleged movie critics base their reviews on pirated downloads they watch on their computer moniters. Our accredited critic, however, actually gets into advance media screenings of films. Want an informed opinion by a real critic with a film degree who saw the movie in the theatre as it was meant to be seen? Jorge’s your guy. Here’s his review of The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, which he saw Monday. (Also reviews of How I Live Now and Inside Llewyn Davis).

ANOTHER WINTER, ANOTHER REGINA MASS EVICTION A buildingful of people get eviction notices with the whole winter ahead of them. God help anyone who rents in this town.

MANDELA WAS NOT BELOVED BY CONSERVATIVES He’s been almost universally praised as the last great political hero of the 20th century but right-wingers sure didn’t love him at the time.